What: All Issues :
Labor Rights :
Pension Protections :
H. Res. 547. Sense of the House Resolution/Vote to Allow Consideration of Measure Expressing the Sense of the House
that Congress Should Adopt Republican Legislation in Areas of Employee Pensions, Tax Relief for Married Couples, and
Pension Benefits.
(2002 house Roll Call 413)

Who:
All Members

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H. Res. 547. Sense of the House Resolution/Vote to Allow Consideration of Measure Expressing the Sense of the House
that Congress Should Adopt Republican Legislation in Areas of Employee Pensions, Tax Relief for Married Couples, and
Pension Benefits.

For legislation to pass Congress, the measure must be adopted by the House and the Senate in identical forms. Frequently, bills pass one legislative body but not the other and are defeated as a result. In an effort to admonish the Senate for its failure to act on several House-passed measures, House GOP leaders drafted several "sense of the House" resolutions which stated that the Senate should act on those issues. Unlike all other legislation, sense of the House resolutions are nonbinding and lack the force of law. The subject of this vote was a motion to move the previous question (thereby ending debate and the possibility of amendment) on a rule governing debate on three sense of the House resolutions. Those resolutions would urge Congress to pass legislation pertaining to employee pension funds, tax breaks for married couples, and incentives for pension and retirement contributions. Progressives opposed the motion to move the previous question based on their opposition to the GOP-drafted bills in those three areas. The motion was adopted on a 217-200 vote and the rule was subsequently adopted by voice vote (prior to House consideration of legislation, a rule drafted by the House Rules Committee-a functionary of the majority party leadership-must be adopted).